A solar pond is a body of water characterized by a halocline which is a stratified layer located just below the surface wherein the density increases uniformly with depth establishing a non-convective zone, and pycnocline which is a stratified layer at the bottom of the pond having a density that increases with depth due to a corresponding temperature distribution. In consequence, solar radiation incident on the pond is absorbed in the halocline causing a heat gradient to build up such that the water below the halocline is heated, and may reach a temperature of 100.degree. C. Heat can be extracted from the layer of water below the halocline for generating power.
Conventionally, solar ponds are constructed on land sites using dissolved salts to establish the required density distribution in the halocline. As is well known to people versed in the art, the possibility of permeation of the aqueous saline solution into the soil gives rise to severe economic, ecologic and geophysical problems.
Natural salt lakes exist in the world having a very high concentration of solutes such as the Dead Sea in Israel and the Great Salt Lake in the United States. Use of such natural salt lakes to establish of a floating solar pond has been suggested , i.e., by confining therein a body of saline solution with a halocline and pycnocline. In this way, so it has been argued, the severe economic, ecological and geophysical problems associated with the erection of solar ponds on land sites would be overcome. However, it was soon realized that in practice the confinement of such a body of aqueous solution gives rise to severe constructional problems which could hitherto not have been solved. In consequence, the idea of a floating solar pond has hitherto not progressed beyond a mathematical concept. It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a structure for a floating solar pond, and a power plant therefor.